# Why Presidents Use Multiple Pens to Sign Bills

*History & War · Eleanor Hartwell · 2026-09-28*

## TL;DR

U.S. presidents use multiple pens to sign major bills so they can distribute them as souvenirs and spread credit among lawmakers and supporters. The practice became a White House staple in the 20th century and continues today, with each pen typically used to trace part of the president's signature before being given away.

## Key facts

- President Lyndon B. Johnson used dozens of pens to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, then gave them to key figures involved in the legislation.
- Some accounts trace the modern signing-pen custom to Franklin D. Roosevelt or to later presidents, but no single founder can be named with confidence.
- Presidents have used pens from a range of brands over the years, and the White House's choices can shift from one administration to the next.
- Donald Trump favored Sharpie markers during his presidency, a notable departure from the pens more commonly seen at earlier signings.
- Recipients of signing pens have included lawmakers, civil rights leaders, campaign supporters, and family members.

## The Tray of Pens: A White House Ritual Hiding in Plain Sight

Watch a president sit down to sign a major bill and you will notice something strange before the ink even touches paper: a whole tray of pens sits waiting, not one. That is the short answer to why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills. They work through several pens on a single document, and the pens then leave the room as gifts for the people who fought to get that law passed.

The tray itself tells you something about the day ahead. The number of pens laid out in front of the president roughly tracks how many documents are about to be signed, so a small stack of pens means a routine morning and a long row of them means something bigger is coming. Nobody announces this. You just learn to read the table.

The exact origin of the custom is murky. No one can point to a single president and say he started it, though the practice has run for decades, from the mid-20th century straight through recent administrations. What is not murky is the logic. A president signs, then hands the pen to someone in the room, and that small object becomes a keepsake and a thank-you rolled into one.

Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the ritual to its loudest extreme. In 1964, signing the Civil Rights Act, he used 75 separate pens on that one law. One of them went to Martin Luther King Jr. Seventy-five pens for one signature is not efficiency. It is a message about how many hands it took.

The pens themselves are tools, not treasures. The White House has cycled through different brands and models over the years, and the choices can shift from administration to administration. As for the idea that presidents are loyal to one specific inexpensive model, the record is less tidy than the legend. What is clear is that the pens are meant to be given away, which is exactly why there are so many of them.

## Where the Tradition Came From, and Why Nobody Can Say for Sure

Ask a room of historians who started the multiple-pen ritual and you will get a shrug, a few theories, and no agreement. The precise origin is debated and often traced to Franklin D. Roosevelt or to later presidents, but no single founder can be named with confidence. That uncertainty is itself part of the story, because a custom this visible, performed on national television for generations, ought to have a clean birthday. It does not.

What we can say with confidence is that the ritual has carried on for decades. U.S. presidents often use several pens to sign a single document, and the reason is not ink. It is memory. The pens used to sign legislation are given as souvenirs to the people who helped pass the law: lawmakers, advocates, staffers, sometimes a family member pulled into the frame at the last second. Watch a major signing and you will see the president finish one stroke, set the pen down, reach for the next, and hand the finished one off like a relay baton. The pens are handed out one by one as the bill is signed.

Some accounts trace the practice to Franklin D. Roosevelt or to presidents who came after him, but the trail is murky and the accounts do not line up. Some versions point to one administration, some to another, and none of them settle the question. So the origin stays contested. What is not contested is that the habit stuck, and that it hardened into something close to choreography. A president signing a landmark bill in front of cameras is not just signing. He is distributing keepsakes, one pen at a time, to the people who made the moment possible.

That is the underlying reason why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills. The signature is the law. The pens serve as thank-you notes, and there are never quite enough of them to go around.

## The Real Reason: The Pens Are Thank-You Gifts

Watch a president sign a major bill and you will notice something odd on the desk: a tray holding many pens, not just one. The reason has nothing to do with ink running dry. Every pen in that tray carries a name.

This is the heart of why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills. Each instrument becomes a souvenir handed to someone who helped push the legislation across the finish line. Lawmakers who wrangled votes, advocates who spent years lobbying, staffers who drafted and redrafted the text, all of them can walk away with a physical piece of the moment. The pen is a keepsake and a thank-you at the same time, a small object that says *you were part of this*.

The mechanics are almost ceremonial. A president signs the first stroke of a name, then passes that pen to a waiting hand before reaching for the next one. Across a single signing, dozens of people can receive a piece of the same signature. As the pens are handed out, the room fills with people holding a piece of history.

The record for sheer volume belongs to Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1964, when he signed the Civil Rights Act, he worked through 75 separate pens. One of them went to Martin Luther King Jr., a gift that tied the movement's most visible leader directly to the law he had spent years demanding.

What lands in those hands is not a luxury item. Some accounts describe the pens as Cross Century II models, but the specific model and any consistent inexpensiveness cannot be reliably confirmed. That detail fits the mood of the ritual either way. A thank-you gift works best when it feels personal, not precious. The White House's pen choices have shifted from administration to administration, so no single brand owns the tradition forever.

Presidents bring their own habits to the desk, too. Many are fountain pen enthusiasts with personal favorites they reach for outside of official ceremonies. Donald Trump was widely noted for using Sharpies, but calling this definitively breaking a Cross-pen tradition oversimplifies a varied practice, since different administrations and different signing events have used different pens and brands.

Strip away the pageantry and the logic is simple. A bill is never the work of one person, and a signature is over in seconds. The pens stretch that moment out, one keepsake at a time, until everyone who built the law has something to hold.

## The Record Holder: LBJ's 75 Pens and the One That Went to Martin Luther King Jr.

If you want the single most famous example of why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills, look at July 2, 1964. That day, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, and he did not reach for one pen. He used 75 separate pens, the highest count widely reported for a single signing. The ceremony turned a legal act into a room full of objects, each one destined for a different pair of hands.

Johnson understood what those pens could do. He signed the bill in stages, passing each pen along as soon as his signature was complete, so that the people who had spent years pushing the legislation forward could walk away with a piece of the moment itself. Among the recipients was Martin Luther King Jr., who received one of the pens from that signing. King had been at the center of the movement that made the law possible, and the pen was Johnson's way of marking that debt in ink and metal.

The scale of the 1964 ceremony is what makes it the reference point. Seventy-five pens is not a gesture you can wave off as an afterthought. It is a deliberate choice to spread the credit wide, to hand a physical token to senator, organizer, and ally alike. Johnson turned a signature into a distribution, and the Civil Rights Act became the clearest illustration of the practice in American political memory.

That is the record. It stands as the benchmark against which every other signing ceremony is measured, and it is the moment most people picture when they wonder why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills in the first place.

## Cheap Pens, Personal Favorites, and Trump's Sharpies

Here is the part that surprises people: the pens behind all that ceremony are not luxury objects. Some accounts describe presidents signing with a Cross Century II, a pen that would not raise an eyebrow at any office supply counter. That specific model and its consistent cheapness cannot be reliably confirmed across every administration, so treat the detail as reported rather than settled record. What is confirmed is that the White House's pen choices can change occasionally, so no single brand owns the desk forever.

And the tray is not the only factor. Many presidents are fountain-pen enthusiasts, and plenty of them keep personal favorites of their own, pens they reach for when the cameras are off. So the official signing pen is less a signature style and more a piece of stagecraft, chosen for the moment rather than the man.

Then there is the Sharpie. Donald Trump was widely noted for signing with Sharpies, and that habit is often framed as a clean break from a Cross-pen tradition. That framing oversimplifies a varied practice, since different administrations and different signing events have used different pens and brands over the years.

Which brings the question back to the tray. Why presidents use multiple pens to sign bills has less to do with ink and more to do with what a pen becomes once the signature is dry. The pens are inexpensive because they are meant to be given away, not kept.


## Frequently asked questions

**What is the tradition of presidents using multiple pens to sign a bill?**

Modern U.S. presidents routinely sign a single major bill with several pens rather than one, swapping to a fresh pen after each stroke. The finished signature is assembled from multiple pens, and each pen then becomes a keepsake that can be handed out to the people who helped pass the law.

**Who started the tradition of using multiple pens to sign bills?**

The exact origin of the multiple-pen signing tradition is not firmly established. The precise beginnings are debated and often traced to Franklin D. Roosevelt or to later presidents, so no single founder can be named with confidence. What is clear is that the practice has continued for decades.

**How many pens did Lyndon B. Johnson use to sign the Civil Rights Act?**

Lyndon B. Johnson holds the record. In 1964, he used 75 separate pens to sign the Civil Rights Act. He then gave one of those pens to Martin Luther King Jr., turning a single signature into dozens of mementos tied to the law's passage.

**Why do presidents give away the pens they use to sign legislation?**

Signing pens are handed out as souvenirs and thank-yous to the lawmakers, advocates, and allies who helped push a bill through. Because a major law can require many pens, a president has enough to share the credit widely, and each recipient keeps a small physical piece of the moment.

**What kind of pens do presidents typically use for signing bills?**

Presidents have used various pens and brands over time, and the White House's pen choices can change from one administration or signing event to the next. Cross models are among those associated with signings, though claims about one specific model being consistently used and inexpensive are hard to confirm.

**Did Donald Trump change the pen tradition by using Sharpies?**

Donald Trump was widely noted for signing with Sharpies, and his preference stood out against the pens more commonly seen at signings. Whether that amounts to definitively breaking a Cross-pen tradition oversimplifies a varied practice, since presidents have long used different pens and kept personal favorites. Editorial note: Details that remain unconfirmed, such as exact pen counts or specific recipients in individual ceremonies, are presented here as reported or approximated rather than as verified fact.

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